Parents upset by state education budget

Kathy Willner says she knows the value of teacher assistants in public schools.

It used to be her job.

She worked in Gaston County Schools for 25 years before retiring in 2007.

And state budget cuts to public education will ultimately hurt personalized attention in the classroom, she said.

Legislators on Wednesday were expected to approve the state budget, giving $11.5 billion to public schools, community colleges, and the University of North Carolina system.

Education funding will be cut $260 million this year, and another $222 million next year.

The budget would cut money for teacher assistants, meaning the loss of about 3,800 of those jobs statewide. Positions expected to be cut are those in second- and third-grade classrooms.

Willner has six grandchildren who attend public school. She is concerned for their futures, saying assistants are essential to students’ success.

“If (the teacher) needed special help, we were the ones who gave her special help,” she said. “The teacher assistant is the rock, the right-hand person.”

Assistants are available to work one-on-one with struggling students so the teacher can move ahead with lesson plans, she said.

Job cuts are among the chief concerns for Diane Gibson, president of Gaston’s chapter of the N.C. Association of Educators.

She is a home economics teacher at North Gaston High School.

Second-graders still require individualized attention from teacher assistants while learning, she said.

“It’s sort of a scary time in education,” she said. “You almost feel that legislators are trying to do away with public education and privatize it.”

Gaston County Schools Superintendent Reeves McGlohon said the cuts will have a “serious impact on our ability to do everything we can for children in the early grades.”

At this point, he doesn’t know the exact local effects of the cuts.

If faced with slashing jobs, McGlohon said he will look at eliminating vacant positions first.

If more jobs must go, the superintendent said he will consider special skills teachers have, how long they’ve been employed and performance evaluations.

Job security

Another major concern for Gibson is tenure for teachers. She said it provides a certain level of job security, allowing teachers to have conflicting opinions with school administrators.

Gibson said the new legislation would eliminate tenure by 2018, getting rid of due process when it comes to firing employees.

“That’s really scary,” she said. “If you speak out or do something different and don’t agree with your administrator, you’re not guaranteed due process.”

McGlohon said the majority of local teachers have tenure, meaning they’ve taught more than three years.

Private schools

Another touchy topic in the new budget is a spending plan that would provide $10 million for low-income students to attend private schools.

Willner said she thinks it’s great, because all of her grandchildren enrolled in public school would probably qualify. And she’s in favor of them attending private school if it means they would receive a better education.

“Anybody that can get in a school and get some (financial) help, I’m all for it,” she said.

Gibson said the legislation is an attempt to dismantle public schools. She is in favor of parents’ rights to educate their children in private schools, but is against supplementing it with state money.

McGlohon said the issue needs more examining, but he has concerns.

“At a time when our school budget is being cut, this takes additional money away from our public schools,” he said.

You can reach Wade Allen at 704-869-1828 or twitter.com/GazetteWade.

The Gazette asked, “Are you a parent of a local student? What do you think about the proposed state budget, regarding education?”